The crusaders

Jennifer Kho

For more than 13 years, most of Bill Turpit’s mornings were the same.

He drove down his street, turned right on 18th Street and took it to

Newport Boulevard.

It wasn’t until 1993 that he turned another direction -- left on 18th

Street to Placentia Avenue.

Turpit’s decision to make that left turn -- guided by Save Our Youth

founder the late Roy Alvarado -- inspired him to make a lasting change in

his daily routine.

Alvarado “introduced me to a whole new neighborhood,” said Turpit,

secretary for both the Latino Business Council and the Latino Community

Network. “I never saw that part of Costa Mesa. It is representative of

what a lot of people experienced in that, for many years until recently,

it has been a kind of invisible community. Kids go to school, parents go

to work, and they are pretty quiet and don’t get any attention. It was

only gang incidents that generated attention.”

Turpit is one of many people who have been inspired, one way or

another, to spend time and effort improving the city’s Westside.

Some dedicate an hour or two a week to volunteer in some way, while

others have made the goal of improving conditions their major lifetime

work.

Since the November election, they have had much to do.

With the election of Councilman Chris Steel and Councilwoman Karen

Robinson, the council has been more divided than ever in opinion, often

voting 3 to 2.

The new council and the large number of big issues and projects it has

been dealing with have come hand in hand with higher attendance and

public involvement, as well as many heated debates.

While the different views about Westside issues are not new, the

election of Steel, who ran nine times before winning, has intensified and

given more attention to the voices of those who agree with him.

But there are still many who don’t agree with the ideas that the

presence of too many charities and illegal immigrants are the main cause

of many of the Westside’s woes.

Others still, such as Tom and Eleanor Egan, are involved politically

and often attend City Council meetings, where they advise the council of

their opinions and lobby for a Westside cleanup. Others work behind the

scenes to try to help people in need.

These activists, equipped with diverse styles, personalities and

opinions, have a wide-range of backgrounds and motivations.

The remedies they advocate differ from person to person, but the goal

is the same -- a safe, clean, welcoming and prosperous neighborhood.

BILL TURPIT

It was a number of gang problems that caught Turpit’s attention in the

early 1990s.

“I was concerned,” Turpit said. “I wondered what was going on in my

neighborhood. Then I read about Roy Alvarado, who was actually doing

something about gangs, and I was fortunate enough to develop a

relationship with him. Through that relationship, I got to personally

meet the Westside Latino community. [Alvarado] helped me remove that veil

of fear and misunderstanding by educating me about the true nature of the

Latino community, which is very family-oriented, very loyal, very proud

and very generous, but still a community that has problems that need to

be solved.”

Bad luck helped prompt him to begin volunteering at Save Our Youth and

Share Our Selves, he said.

Turpit, a lawyer, was laid off from his job at a 45-year-old real

estate development company, which closed as a result of the recession.

“The economy gave me the gift of time to learn about my neighborhood,”

he said. “I had not been a volunteer in my community at all before then,

although I had done some volunteer work at UC Irvine and Cal State

Fullerton.”

Even though he has since gone back to a busy work schedule as an

attorney at the Jackson DeMarco and Peckenpaugh law offices in Irvine,

Turpit remains active in the city.

“I get a real sense of belonging to a small-town community,” he said.

“It’s a gift to be able to walk down the street and say ‘hi’ to your

neighbor or to know the merchants you do business with.”

Aside from the friendly attitude, Turpit likes the high number of

pedestrians on the Westside and the area’s proximity to the beach,

restaurants and the freeway.

Things he said he’d like to improve include the streets -- especially

19th Street, which he said is “a disgrace” -- and the number of

businesses that sell liquor, which he’d like to reduce.

DON ELMORE

Don Elmore, 63, said he often saw things that he thought needed to be

improved in Costa Mesa, but 70-hour workweeks and a busy weekend schedule

kept him from trying to make those changes for years.

After serving in the Army, Elmore moved to Costa Mesa 25 years ago

because of a job offer.

Things were bad when he moved in and progressively got worse, he said.

“My main concern is to change the slum-like conditions in a lot of

areas, with overcrowding, noise pollution and so many other problems,” he

said. “One of my main goals is to get all the tarps out of Costa Mesa,

because I think covering stuff up with cardboard, sheet metal or tarps

makes it look like a shanty town. There are houses I see around that I

think really should be condemned, and the liquor stores and pawn shops

along 19th Street attract the wrong people. An area with a lot of liquor

stores and pawn shops is just thought of as the seedy side of town.”

In 1993, an accident at the Mercedes Benz car dealership he worked at

changed Elmore’s life.

A manhole had been left uncovered and Elmore said he fell through it,

injuring his back, shoulders and neck.

During a surgery, he said that nerves in his back were cut, putting

him on 24-hour-a-day pain pills and leaving him bedridden for four

months.

Elmore is now able to walk and drive short distances, but he said the

progressions from his bed to a wheelchair, from the wheelchair to a

walker, from the walker to a cane and from the cane to only his two feet

were difficult struggles that took about six years.

“Now I manage to do quite a bit for short periods, really,” he said.

“I do walk, I just don’t walk good or walk far.”

The accident had at least one silver lining, however.

It gave him more time and, about a year and a half ago, Elmore decided

he wanted to get involved in trying to change the things he thinks of as

amiss.

He went to a Westside Improvement Assn. meeting a year ago, signed in

and was called by Janice Davidson when she started Citizens for the

Improvement of Costa Mesa.

“I never thought about whether it was CICM or WIA,” he said. “I didn’t

care what it was called, as long as it was doing something. I put my

thoughts on the e-mail group, and I follow up on things and go to

meetings. I support whatever I personally feel is good for the city.”

Elmore said he believes that some charities attract low-income people

into the city, and he wants to encourage charities to give fewer

handouts, such as clothes, and to focus more on education, job training

and employment assistance.

“I have nothing against people without money, but there are people who

never get ahead and are always draining society, and there are charities

that enable them to remain poor instead of giving them a way to earn

their way and to better their status in life,” Elmore said.

He supports rezoning the Westside bluffs from industrial to

residential, building an airport at El Toro and keeping the 19th Street

bridge on the county’s master plan to allow younger generations to decide

whether to build the bridge.

“No matter how hard you work, things take time,” Elmore said. “These

improvements are not for our time, but I hope they will make a better

Costa Mesa for the younger people working with us and our kids and

grandkids.”

JOEL FARIS

To Joel Faris, 32, large amounts of litter -- especially on Whittier

Avenue -- are a personal insult.

The reason is that he wakes up at 4:45 a.m. every weekday to take a

walk, pick up trash on the street and spend time in his yard before work.

“I like to do my little part,” Faris said. “I always have a 5-gallon

bucket full of trash. I don’t mind picking up trash, but when I see whole

fast-food cartons, it’s like a slap in the face.”

Faris, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in November and is

considering running again next year, is a fourth-grade teacher at Russell

Elementary School in Santa Ana.

He said he is enjoying having a child of his own.

Faris and his wife, Suzanne, in October adopted a 2-year-old Latino

boy, Matthew, because they wanted to help children in need. They are in

the process of adopting another boy, Adam.

Aside from parenting and teaching, Faris has been involved with

children in his roles as a Boy Scout leader and mentor.

But since his campaign for City Council, Faris said he has become more

active in the city.

He is involved with the Westside Improvement Assn., Citizens for the

Improvement of Costa Mesa, Latino Community Network and, in April, he

participated in the city’s biannual community cleanup, Neighbors for

Neighbors.

There are many things Faris said he likes about the Westside,

including a casual atmosphere, cool breezes, diversity and good food.

But many Westside characteristics need make-overs, he said, including

the lack of a sidewalk in front of 19th Street businesses, apartment

buildings too close to the streets, badly maintained homes, multiple

families living in single-family rentals because wages don’t match the

cost of living, graffiti, disorganized mixed zoning, noise and odors from

manufacturing.

Faris said he likes the fact that there are charities on the Westside

because “charity is very biblical,” but added that, “realistically, when

all the charities are in one area, problems are going to develop because

property values are going to go down. Every person in Orange County

should have a place to go when they need assistance. The help they need

shouldn’t only be available here.”

He favors rezoning the bluffs from industrial to residential, opening

a park centrally located on the Westside and having more townhouse

complexes to give residents control of the maintenance of their homes at

a lower cost than other single-family houses.

For a long time, it has been difficult for Westside residents to get

the city to take action on the Westside.

“I got hopeful when the city was working on the Westside specific

plan, and then nothing happened,” he said. “I realized there is no

representation on the Westside, and the Westside is kind of unique

because we’re kind of a big cul-de-sac. People don’t drive through my

neighborhood to get somewhere else because they can’t.”

He said he thinks it is essential for the Westside to have a

representative in City Hall, but added that he hopes another Westside

resident will run in his place.

“I would prefer not to be a councilman,” he said. “I would rather

somebody else stepped up to the plate who lives here and who wants to

clean things up. I don’t know who it would be, but I hope it doesn’t have

to be me.”

ELEANOR AND TOM EGAN

The Egans are not the average cute couple.

They met through Mensa, a club restricted to people with high IQs,

they have both had two previous marriages, and they disagree for fun.

“It’s part of the joy of our relationship that we’re very comfortable

disagreeing with each other,” said Eleanor Egan, 62-year-old co-chair of

the Westside Improvement Assn., board member and treasurer of the Costa

Mesa Library Foundation, and member of both the Costa Mesa Historical

Society and Costa Mesa Senior Center. “Disagreement on a subject doesn’t

mean being disagreeable. It’s just talk, and it’s very natural to us. We

hash things out at home, and we don’t always come up with a solution. But

we know that any idea would require public support to be viable and if

we’re unable to even convince each other, we’re going to have trouble.”

Tom Egan, 63, agreed.

“One thing we liked from the beginning is that we could talk with each

other,” said Tom Egan, who is the Costa Mesa Library Foundation

president, Costa Mesa 20/20 founder and chairman, and a member of the

Library Services Committee, Orange Coast River Park steering committee,

Costa Mesa Historical Society, Costa Mesa Senior Center and Leadership

Tomorrow class of 2001. “Initially, I think she was afraid to argue with

me, but then she entered into it.”

“With gusto!” added a laughing Eleanor, who has a law degree. “You

don’t marry a lawyer and expect her to be meek.”

“We entertain ourselves,” he said. “We hardly ever watch TV or

anything. We kind of have a running discussion and discuss more each

week, sometimes each day. If I talk with people, come up with new ideas

or hear a new perspective, we’ll talk about it.”

The two have many of the same views on issues.

Both agree that community members should define a vision for the

city’s future, that there is a demand for low-wage workers and are

against litter.

But sometimes, they also present opposing views to the City Council,

such as when the council considered individually appointing one member to

each of the city’s commissions.

The council traditionally votes as a whole on all the appointments and

decided to continue following the same process earlier this year, as

Eleanor urged them to do.

“She won that one,” Tom said with a smile.

Eleanor said she is less comfortable with the idea of urbanization

than Tom is and that he is more likely to come directly to the point,

while she is more likely to take a more diplomatic approach.

Tom had to work hard at becoming comfortable speaking in public, while

Eleanor said it has always suited her.

But both also said they are curious, love words and history, enjoy

learning new skills and facts, and have an urge to give back to the

community.

Tom, who already had master’s degrees in aeronautics and civil

engineering, earned a certificate in urban planning from UC Irvine in

1972 because he was interested in applying some of his engineering

experience to urban problems.

He said he got his chance to put his knowledge to use in the early

1990s when the city was discussing its Fairview Park master plan.

“I wasn’t terribly active until then,” Tom said. “I live close to the

park, but what made me get involved was I didn’t like how the plan was

going. They wanted to put in fences, and I didn’t think that was

appropriate.”

He also got involved with the Westside specific plan, which was

Eleanor’s first big public involvement.

“We were really enthusiastic about improving the Westside through the

specific plan,” Eleanor said. “When the draft came out, I was really

unhappy with it. I heard about some other people who were unhappy, we

talked, started holding meetings to let people express their thoughts,

and we got involved -- reluctantly, I must say. This is not how I planned

to spend my retirement. I planned to work on my house and my garden, but

I was needed elsewhere, and I don’t regret it.”